Walter Reuther

Walter Reuther (1 September 1907-9 May 1970) was an American labor union leader who served as President of the CIO from 1952 to 1955, succeeding Philip Murray and preceding George Meany.

Biography
Walter Reuther was born in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1907, and he left school at 16 to become an apprentice, but was dismissed for protesting against Sunday work. In 1926 he went to Detroit and became a foreman at the Ford Motor Company. Dismissed for labor union activity in 1932, he soon joined General Motors, where he helped found the United Automobile Workers union. As its president from 1946 untl his death, he pioneered negotiations for guaranteed employment, wage increases tied to productivity, and welfare provisions for its members. A strong anti-communist, from 1952 to 1955 he was president of the CIO, which had been tainted by communist associations in the 1940s and 1950s, and fought strenuously to rid unions of corruption and racketeers. In 1955 he led the reunion between the CIO and AFL. However, disagreement with George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, led him to take the UAW out of the organization in 1969. Shortly before his death he formed a short-lived "Alliance for Labor Action" with the Teamsters. A strong supporter of civil rights and cooperative movements, he fought strenuously for the right of organized labor to participate in industrial planning. In his belief that trade unions had to take stands on non-industrial policy issues, he became an important influence in the Democratic Party. He was also in the vanguard of attempts to link unions to business with productivity bonuses for workers and index-linked wage increases and pension benefits. He died in an airplane crash in Pellston, Michigan in 1970.